How agriculture works thread

[ArlyA]

Older crop numbers off of Wiki. My relatives grow the top three on this list plus black sunflowers. They mostly do various wheat's. Maybe something else but I can't recall right now...
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Other crops appearing in the top 20 at some point in the last 40 years were: tobacco, barley, and oats, and, rarely: peanuts, almonds, and sunflower seeds. Alfalfa and hay would both be in the top ten in 2003 if they were tracked by FAO.

Crops​

Value of production​

Rice paddy, California

Major Crops in the U.S.	1997 (in US$ billions)	2014 (in US$ billions)
Source	1997 USDA – NASS reports,[14]	2015 USDA-NASS reports,[15]
Corn	$24.4	$52.3
Soybeans	$17.7	$40.3
Wheat	$8.6	$11.9
Alfalfa	$8.3	$10.8
Cotton	$6.1	$5.1
Hay, (non-Alfalfa)	$5.1	$8.4
Tobacco	$3.0	$1.8
Rice	$1.7	$3.1
Sorghum	$1.4	$1.7
Barley	$0.9	$0.9

 

[ArlyA]

Mitch in the red river valley of ND combining wheat. I didn't know the guys in that valley did wheat!

 

[Jstpssng]

Speaking of different types of farms; one of the guys at our office used to work on a worm farm, for live bait; another worked at a rodent farm, raise feed rats for snakes/lizards. Another guy I used to work around had owned a small chicken and egg operation, but he said with only 200,000 chickens, they couldn't make it work. He told me you need atleast 1,000,000 chickens to make it profitable. Was on a project once, and an old retired chicken farmer told me that in the 80s, a power outage cost him between 2-3m chickens. If those blowers aren't running, it's a count down to a massive die off. Don't know what 2-3m chickens are in % of his total flock.

Another project, building some apartments, we leased a couple acres for a lay down yard from an old retired farmer. He was in the process of selling property off for development. I kinda said 'thats a shame' or something like that. He said, why, its just land, I can sell 20 acres here and buy 1000 acres in Oklahoma with the same money. I think we developed around 40 acres of his old cabbage and potatoes field, into a 240 unit apartment complex, and there where two 20 acres pieces he sold off, getting developed into town homes.

My uncle raised pullets in an old henhouse for a major egg chain, from day-old until they started laying. One hot spell (for Maine) his was the only farm which didn't lose most of their flock, because the modern buildings relied on fans which weren't adequate while he just opened more windows. Unfortunately the place burned in 1976.

 

[ptsg]

Grape harvest on some hills in Italy. Around here, it's also grape harvest time.

 

[Jstpssng]

This has got to be tough...

Eight cows dead after lightning strike on farm in Winslow

Fortin says that of the 17 cows sheltering under the large pine tree on the edge of his property, eight were dead.

www.wabi.tv

 

[ArlyA]

Seed corn being picked (not combined) on Laura's farm. They do this while at 30% moisture which is much to high for normal corn. I had no idea they picked it with sweet corn pickers.

 

[Buggs67]

Not sure if anyone mentioned the KatesAg website but it is very interesting and growing rapidly. It's dryland farming in Montana growing wheat, lentils, etc. Kate is maybe age 17 or 18 with wisdom far beyond her years and plenty of true grit. She is going places in life. It's worth a look.

Enjoyed her video. She seems to know more what she's doing, not just a pretty face.

 

[ArlyA]

Good video made in France this year running JD X9 combines doing wheat. Professional filming, like its a Deere commercial. Gives a good view of just how wide those heads are. Note the little girls riding along, with I assume dad.

 

[sixdogs]

Good video made in France this year running JD X9 combines doing wheat. Professional filming, like its a Deere commercial. Gives a good view of just how wide those heads are. Note the little girls riding along, with I assume dad.

Having lived through the olden days of pull-type combines, today's combines are hard to imagine . If you would have told a farmer of the 1950's or even 1960's what would be available today, not a one would believe you. All that could be invented had already been invented was the common thinking.

The old combines were very inefficient and lots of grain was went out the back. Today's combines leave very little behind but on the downside, the small game and birds that used to follow the combines are no longer there.

 

[sixdogs]

For those who think the farmer of today is rolling in dough and living the high life, skip ahead to 13.50 on the video below and see a wheat field harvest that is down maybe 80% because of bugs that caused the wheat to lay flat and not be able to be harvested.

That loss is after running three expensive combines through the field and spending lots on fuel and transportation. That loss is on the loss of planting and fertilizer that required multiple expensive trips through the field with related costs. And that loss is on top of the cost of buying, maintaining and paying taxes on land while the crop is lost.

Imagine a worker of today getting a paycheck with no $$ but instead a demand that he pay up for the desk space and materials he used during the year. Funny, I don't hear many farmers complaining.